Call of Duty: Black Ops II PC User Review

8.5

Call of Duty is tuning itself into a storied franchise that is putting out great products, in turn, increasing its expectations with every release. Black Ops II is the latest release under the Call of Duty name, and it is meeting those lofty expectations among the majority of the gaming crowd.

For this review, we though itd be helpful to break it down into two sections, campaign and multiplayer, since thats what we all care about the most.

Campaign:

The story starts off as a continuation of the Black Ops I and spans two generations between Alex Mason and his son David Mason. The main villain, Menendez, has a great story line that makes for a truly epic cinematic experience while you are playing the game. Menendezs character, who you will probably hate, begins to show many of the reasons why he is doing what he does, which in turn makes you start to not hate him, adding to the compelling draw to the storyline.

As far as the game play itself goes, it is nothing short of spectacular. The engine runs smoothly making the onscreen play look natural and life-like. The responsiveness throughout campaign is great, making for a very smooth experience. The newer edition to this COD line offers a split story line, one that is going on in the 80's and one that is happening in the year 2025, which takes care of all the critics from the first Black Ops game who were saying the weapons were nothing special. The fact is, in the 80s we didn't have the technology we have today, but in 2025 we will have even better technology, which is why in BOII you have things like nano-tech climbing gloves.

Replay value in campaign mode is tremendous. Unlike many games that have one story that is scripted out, Black Ops II actually allows you to choose what happens in your game, who lives and who dies? This allows you to take different routes to the end each time you play the game.

Multiplayer:

The multiplayer in Black Ops has been great, so many people have asked the question, how can you make perfection better? CODs answer to this was to tweak it, not change it. Well, we are here to say that the tweaks that COD made in the latest edition were great.

One of the best changes was to the reward system. Instead of getting kill streak rewards, the game has changed over to a point streak reward system, which allows those support players that are getting assists and helping teammates out to reap the rewards of their input.

Another great tweak was in the load-out section. This new pick 10 load out style allows the player to pick ten things to take with them on their mission whether it be guns, perks, or support equipment. This might not seem like a big deal, however, once you start to get a feel for the game, you can tweak your load out constantly to maximize your success.

Now with all the great things about Black Ops II on the PC, there are a few things that fell short for me. With all the hype around zombie mode, I felt it simply did not live up to what it was said to be. The last downside would probably come in campaign mode where you have the option, at times, to control your brigade through something called strike force. In my opinion this falls short due to its lack of AI.

All in all, the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this game, and it is well worth the money considering the great multiplayer and many options when it comes to replaying the campaign mode.